Leonardo da Vinci, Renaissance genius

2019 Year of Da Vinci

The great Italian man is celebrated everywhere. From Florence to Amboise, via Martigny, Milan, Turin, Vinci, Venice and Paris.

Numerous events and exhibitions pay tribute to him.

Born in 1452 in Vinci, Tuscany, he learned painting and sculpture from Verrocchio in Florence. Misunderstood in Florence, he moved to Milan to work for Duke Ludovico Sforza, known as the Moor, (The Last Supper), before moving on to Rome, Bologna and Venice as an architect and military engineer.

His work is universal: artist, painter, wit, scientist, engineer, inventor, animal anatomist (Codex on bird flight) and human anatomist.

Architect, royal party planner, scenographer, machinist, botanist, poet, philosopher, writer.

An urban planner before his time, he conceived an ideal city and drew up plans in his famous Codex Atlanticus: flying machines, a giant crossbow, a parachute!

He spent the last three years of his life with François I at the Château du Clos Lucé. He died at the age of sixty-seven in 1519, five hundred years ago.

He is buried at Château d’Amboise.

A selection of documents to discover at theentrance to the Agora of the BCU Lausanne, Riponne site , from May 13 to June 10.

eLectures platform

• Scientists who were right too soon
• The Medici clan
• Da Vinci Code
• The Da Vinci deception
• The Montefeltro Enigma
• The history of science for dummies
• Michelangelo’s broken nose and other stories
• A queen’s secret passion
• Florentine painters of the Renaissance
• The Seven Crimes of Rome (Leonardo da Vinci leads the investigation)
• The theft of the Mona Lisa
• Young Leonardo

Find out more about events

• Amboise celebrates 500 years of Leonardo
• Florence and Turin
• Milan Leonardo mai visto
• Martigny Leonardo da Vinci the inventor
• Paris Louvre Museum
• Vinci Museo leonardiano

Quiz

• Finally, test your knowledge with the Leonardo da Vinci quiz.